Friday 4 September 2026

8:30 AM - 9:00 AM | Registration and Networking

9:00 AM - 9:15 AM | Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:15 AM - 10:00 AM | Fireside Chat - A Conversation on King V: The Thinking Behind Governance and Its Next Phase

An opening fireside conversation examining the thinking behind King V and its implications for governance frameworks. The session will explore how the principles are intended to be applied, the challenges they seek to address, and what they signal for the future of governance.

10:00 AM - 10:45 AM | How Do GCs Influence Strategy When Geopolitics Rewrites the Rules?

General counsel have become the most critical strategic voices in the organisations. They are now expected to interpret geopolitical signals, anticipate cross-border disruptions, and advise on issues that are not purely legal but fundamentally commercial. This session explores how legal leaders can shape strategy when the rules are constantly being rewritten - and how they can help leadership teams navigate uncertainty with clarity and confidence.
 

10:45 AM - 11:00 AM | Coffee and Networking Break

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM | Africa's ESG Compliance Shift: Overcoming the Barriers to Mandatory Reporting

As global investors, trading partners, and regulators raise expectations around transparency and sustainability, Africa-based companies are facing growing pressure to move from voluntary ESG disclosure to structured, mandatory reporting. This session examines the continent's emerging ESG compliance landscape and explores what it will take for businesses to overcome fragmented regulatory environments, limited data infrastructure, capacity constraints, while also positioning themselves to compete in a market where ESG performance increasingly shapes access to capital and global value chains.
 

Supported by:

11:45 AM - 12:30 PM | Generalists vs Specialists: How Do You Structure Your Legal Department for AI?

AI introduces a new set of legal questions - from decision-making to IP and cross-border risk. Business leaders expect Legal to guide responsible adoption and shape enterprise-wide AI strategy, but how do you build a legal team that is both adaptable and expert to keep pace with AI's evolution? This session explores how legal departments can structure themselves for an AI-driven future by balancing generalist breadth with specialist depth, positioning the legal department as a strategic enabler.
 

Supported by:

12:30 PM - 1:15 PM | Networking Lunch

2:00 PM - 2:45 PM | Cost, Capability & Capacity: Striking the Balance Between Outsourcing and Insourcing

Striking the right balance between outsourcing and insourcing is no longer just a budgeting exercise - it's a capability and capacity challenge. The wrong mix can create bottlenecks, inflate costs, or leave the organisation exposed. This session explores how GCs can design a legal operating model that aligns costs, capability and capacity with the organisation's evolving needs.
 

2:45 PM - 3:00 PM | Coffee and Networking Break

3:45 PM - 4:30 PM | The Leadership Pipeline: Designing Tomorrow's Legal Team Today

This session explores how to intentionally design a leadership pipeline that equips your legal team for the demands of tomorrow. It examines how to identify emerging talent, develop the capabilities the future will require, and build a culture where leadership is distributed, not concentrated. Rather than simply replacing roles, the focus is on shaping a function that can evolve, adapt, and thrive.
 

4:30 PM | Closing Remarks